A recent decision by the Securities and Exchange Commission to begin allowing fund companies to create ETF share classes of traditional mutual funds is expected to lead to a flood of new ETFs on the market, but State Street 's fund management arm, State Street Investment Management, has other ideas.

The ETF giant, which manages roughly $1.7 trillion in its SPDRs ETF family — including the oldest and most-widely traded S&P 500 exchange-traded fund, SPY , and the biggest gold ETF, GLD — sees the SEC greenlight as an opportunity to bring a new ETF challenge to the retirement plan market.

It's planning to adopt the SEC decision, in reverse, offering mutual fund share classes of its ETF strategies in the massive U.S. retirement plan market, which has typically be

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